Friday, November 16, 2012

Lazy Vs. Efficient

I hate wasting time and resources.

I hate when I am not getting the most out of something. I usually do not run the A/C or the heater while driving. If it’s nice out, I keep the window down and the air off. In the colder months, I will heat up the car, just to take the chill out. Then, I will just drive with the heat off, but the temperature to heat. I also don’t use the gas pedal on hills. I build up a decent speed, and then coast through a hill to the bottom. Some will disagree with my approach to gas efficiency. I know it sounds silly, but I still manage to get at least 300 miles to a tank of gas in a V6 engine driving back and forth through Pittsburgh, everyday.

I also hate wasting time in the mornings. When I get to work, the kitchen is the first room I enter on my way to my cube. I put my lunch in the fridge, make my coffee, and get breakfast ready. Some days, it’s Pop Tarts. Some days, it’s cereal. Lately, it’s been oatmeal. In any case, I get it all prepared before heading to my cube. That way I don’t have to walk all the way there, drop off my stuff, then walk back to the kitchen. I can have my coffee and breakfast going while I get my computer up and running, checking emails, etc. That may seem lazy, like I don’t want to walk all that way. I consider it being efficient in using my time wisely.

I remember in one of my old jobs, working at a hotel, that due to being pressed for time in turning over a room from a lunch to a wedding we would try to be as efficient as possible. If the room had all rectangle tables for a meeting, and we needed mostly round tables, we’d save the ones we needed and remove the rest. We would take back two rectangle tables, one in each hand, and bring out two round tables, rolling them out, side by side.

One day, I snapped at a younger, less experienced coworker. They were carrying in round tables and not taking out rectangles. I flat out said, “If I see you walk out of here empty handed, one more time, I’m putting my foot in your ass.” Of course, I was mostly joking, but we needed to hurry.

Anytime I can reduce the number of trips I need to make, I feel like I am being efficient. Granted, I try to carry every bag of groceries from the car, instead of making trips because it’s tiring. However, is it really being lazy if you load up your arms to capacity instead of carrying two bags and making ten trips in and out of the house?

When I’m at home on my laptop, working or just vegging, I tend to do what I can from a fixed position. If the kid wants a channel change, I ask her to bring me the remote. Yeah, that’s not lazy, huh? LOL. Granted, I’m a big guy who hates to get up and down a lot. Still working….well not much… on that. It’s hard when 80% of what you do to make money involves a computer and a chair.